Battle of Anchialos

The battle of Anchiolos took place the August 20th 917, near the Black Sea on the site of the current city of Pomorie in Bulgaria between the Bulgarian ones and the Byzantine Empire.

Be a prelude to

Following the Bulgarian victory at the time of the war of 894 - 896 the Byzantines were obliged to pay tribute with Simeon. In 912 when the emperor bizantin Leon VI dies, his/her Alexandre brother refused to pay the tribute with Bulgarian and Siméon saw an occasion there to launch a new war enabling him to conquer Constantinople. Alexandre dies during the same year and the new government following the attempts to despair of the patriarch Nicholas Mystikos to avoid the war promised that the emperor still child Constantin VII would marry with a girl of Siméon. but in 914, new the regent Zoe, the mother of Constantin, rejects the marriage. For answer the Bulgarian ones conquer the Eastern Thrace, and its population agreed to recognize Siméon like new emperor and in September 914, the Bulgarian ones capture Andrinople, whereas the army bizantine was more occupied in the east. The following year the Bulgarian armies tackled the sectors of Dirrachium and Solun.

Preparations of the battle

To find a solution with this conflict and to overcome the Bulgarian ones, the Zoe empress makes peace with the Arab and to engage the whole army of the east to overcome the Bulgarian ones. The Byzantines seek also allies and sendings of the emissary in Hungary, at the Petchenègues and in Serbia but Siméon with the current of the methods of the diplomacy bizantine takes measures to reverse alliances with its profit. Thus the Byzantines are forced to only fight.

The Byzantine army

In 917, the empire bizantin had stabilized its Eastern borders, and the generals Jean Bogas and Leon Phocas could thus profit from the troops of the Eastern Thème S, perhaps 10.000 men. It was an enormous army and its goal was the final elimination of the Bulgarian threat of north. The moral one of the army was increased because the soldiers accepted their pay in advance.

A fleet ordered by Romain Ier Lécapène was placed as for it with the mouth of the the Danube. The Byzantines tried to pay tribes petchénègues so that these last help the Byzantines during the battle. Finally the petchénègues in front of the refusal of Romain Lecapène to make them cross the Danube attacked the Bulgarian territory directly.

The Bulgarian army

The Bulgarian ones under Siméon Ier have an army of 70.000 men. Although the Bulgarian diplomats had succeeded prevented the attempts at Byzantine alliances with Petchénègues, Hungarian and the Serb ones, Siméon always craigaient an intervention of their share. To counter this possible threat, it sent two small armies on the borders north of the Bulgaria, in the Bosnian area like in the west of the Dniepr. Moreover Bulgarian forces were deployed at the Serbe border.

The battle

The army bizantine moved towards north and placed its camp near the Anchialus fortress. Leon Phocas had envisaged to take Moesia and for thus making his junction with the Petchénègues army and that of Romain Lecapène to Dobrudzha. Simeon quickly concentrated its army in the neighborhoods of the fortress. The morning of the August 20th 917, the battle between Bulgarian and Byzantine ones started in the neighborhoods of the Akelooi river (close to the modern village of Acheloi, with 8 kilometers in the north of the town of Anchialos (today Pomorie). The generals bizantins projected to overflow the Bulgarian right wing in order to detach the troops of Siméon of the Balkan passages. The Bulgarian ones them concentrated their most powerful forces on their two wings, the center being relatively weak in order to encircle the enemy. Simeon itself posted great reserves of cavalry hidden behind the hills which were supposed to carry the decisive blow. The attack bizantine was wild and obliged the Bulgarian ones very quickly to beat a retreat. The Byzantine cavalry charged the infantry in the center killing many Bulgarian. The Bulgarian position quickly became desperate because they could not hold the sizes any more in the south of the river and has began a retirement precipitated in direction of north. Exalté, the Byzantines are reflected to continue the Bulgarian ones and their formations of combat soon started to break. The battle which was set up was furious. The decisive moment came when the Bulgarian bodies of cavalry held in reserve carried out by Simeon attacked the Byzantine left wing by behind the hills. Very quickly the Byzantine combatants surprised fold up themselves precipitately. Certain Byzantines tried to push back the cavalry but they were simultaneously attacked by the opposing infantry. The Siméon tsar personally took part in the combat, his horse white was killed at the time of the battle. The escape of the Byzantines was completely disorganized, the majority being killed by the Bulgarian ones. Leon Phocas ran away himself in Mesembria (today Nessebar), however much of commanders Byzantine subordinates perished at the time of the battle. Towards the end of the day the Bulgarian ones capture the town of Mesembria. Leon Phocas being then run away in boat. It is estimated that roughly 70.000 soldiers bizantins died in this battle. The historian bizantin Leon Diaconus says that 75 years after this military catastrophe the field close to Anchiolos was still covered with tens of thousands of Byzantine skeletons. With a total of 90.000 dead the battle was among bloodiest of the medieval history and some historians refer to it as “battles of the century”.

Consequence

The remainder of the army bizantine is it saved with Constantinople, followed the Bulgarian ones. Several days later Phokas was again beaten with the Katasyrtai. The way towards Constantinople was free of any obstacle for the Bulgarian ones. The Byzantines then proposed a treaty and Siméon entered the imperial city where it was crowned second once Tsar. It accepted moreover the title of César by the patriarch of Constantinople. Siméon also required that his/her daughter would marry with Constantin VII, the son of the empress Zoe, but Zoe refused and was combined with the Hungary and the Serbia. However in August 918, a Byzantine general deposited Zoe and exiled it in a monastery, allowing him to become emperor. Alliance with Serbia obliged Siméon to bring its armies more to north where it beat the Serb army and captured its chief. However, this battle made it possible to the Byzantines to demolish Bulgarian presence.

Significance of the battle

The battle of Anchialos was one of the most important battles for Bulgaria. It fixed the imperial title of the Bulgarian tsars for the centuries to come and the battle was an enormous humiliation for the Byzantine empire. The battle also fixed the survival of the Bulgarian nation, its Byzantine enemy not having succeeded in overcoming it with an army of 110.000 men.

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